Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source module, and more particularly, to a light source module having a low profile structure while improving an external appearance and luminous efficacy, and a backlight unit including the same.
Background
Generally backlight units are widely used for liquid crystal displays or surface lighting.
Backlight units of liquid crystal displays can be classified into direct type and edge type backlight units according to the locations of the light emitting devices.
The direct type backlight units have been mainly developed along with production of large-size liquid crystal displays having a size of 20 inches or more, and include a plurality of light sources under a diffusive plate to directly emit light towards a front side of a liquid crystal display panel. The direct type backlight units are mainly used in large-screen liquid crystal displays requiring high brightness due to their higher light use efficiency as compared to edge type backlight units.
The edge type backlight units are mainly applied to relatively small liquid crystal displays such as monitors of laptop computers and desktop computers. Such edge type backlight units have good uniformity of light illumination and a long lifespan, and advantageously permit thickness reduction of a liquid crystal display.
An edge type backlight unit structure recently proposed in the art includes a light emitting diode package that advantageously achieves low power consumption and has a low profile structure. The light emitting diode package is mounted on a substrate and disposed inside a backlight unit.
However, an edge type backlight unit including a light emitting diode package has a limit in achieving a low profile structure of the backlight unit. This is due to increased demand for further thickness reduction that makes it difficult to use highly efficient light emitting diode chips due to poor heat dissipation of the light emitting diode package.